In the wake of the news.

Jays' Gm Should Shoulder Burden On Sirotka Goof

February 13, 2001|By Rick Morrissey.

There are a lot of people I wouldn't want to be, and most days that includes me, but the person at the top of the list right now is Steve Mirabello.

Dr. Steve is in the unfortunate position of being the guy who might have failed to discover the torn labrum inside Mike Sirotka's shoulder. Before last week, many of us didn't know what a labrum was, though there was some discussion that it was named for a ballplayer (Tito Labrum?), in much the same way an elbow procedure has come to be known as Tommy John surgery.

The Toronto Blue Jays are whining that, because they traded David Wells to the White Sox for a left shoulder with issues, they either deserve Wells back or some compensation. "Compensation" here probably means Frank Thomas' genetically engineered clone (postseason not included) and a pitcher to be named Jim Parque later.

The Blue Jays are desperate, of course, because nothing looks worse than a franchise that doesn't do its homework, unless it's a franchise that does its homework and gets all the answers wrong. The Jays would have saved themselves a lot of embarrassment if they had said their dog ate the original X-rays of Sirotka's shoulder. Our friends to the north are upset for a number of reasons, though the underlying gripe seems to be the Sox were less than forthcoming about Sirotka's injury.

Pardon the legalese, but I believe the Sox's response should be: Like, we care.

One of several scenarios is possible in what would be called "L'Affaire Sirotka" in Quebec and "We Got Hosed, Eh?" in Ontario: The injury didn't show up on the original magnetic resonance imaging test Sirotka took; the angle was wrong on that particular MRI and thus didn't show the tear; Sirotka hurt himself after the White Sox traded him to the Blue Jays; or Mirabello couldn't find a hernia in an elephant.

All this has led to much debate about possible deception on the part of the White Sox and more than a little soul-searching about fairness in sport. That's not what this is about, although that's what the Blue Jays want us to believe and what Sirotka implied Monday when he said he told the Sox before the trade that he was experiencing shoulder pain.

This is about where the burden lies when a trade is made.

It's pretty simple. The burden lies with the team acquiring the goods, damaged or otherwise. Before the Jan. 14 trade, Sox General Manager Ken Williams told Blue Jays GM Gord Ash that Sirotka had a history of starting slow because of arm problems; in fact, he didn't want to include Sirotka in the trade at first. That doesn't sound like a guy trying to pull a fast one. But Ash badly wanted Sirotka and Williams did what any general manager would do: He weighed acquiring a star against losing a potential star. Getting Wells, ahem, tipped the scales.

Mirabello, a Florida-based orthopedic specialist, examined Sirotka on Jan. 19 and didn't see a tear. OK, that sort of thing happens sometimes, but it's not the Sox's fault. When Sirotka later complained of soreness in his shoulder, the Blue Jays gave him another MRI on Wednesday and another doctor found a complete tear of the labrum.

Again, whose fault is that? Look, trades are made all the time in baseball and the possibility always exists that an injury is lurking. If we proceed as if Williams wasn't trying to hoodwink the Blue Jays--and there's no indication he was--then Toronto doesn't have much of a leg to stand on, or a sore shoulder to lean on. The Blue Jays, like all other teams, have a medical team for just these situations. Their team dropped the labrum on this one.

Don't confuse this with returning a frayed shirt to the store. If that argument is supposed to be analogous to the Sirotka mess, then your consulting tailor first would have inspected the shirt and declared it in good shape before you bought it.

Poor Dr. Steve is going to need Commissioner Bud Selig to ride in on a Shetland pony and save the day. Here's a question for Selig to consider: Who's to say Sirotka didn't aggravate his injury after Mirabello's diagnosis?

Sirotka is to undergo another MRI on Tuesday. The guess here is that Selig will take the easy way out and force the Sox to give the Blue Jays another player. If that becomes Parque or any of three prized young pitchers--Jon Rauch, Jon Garland or Kip Wells--the Sox should sue for emotional and physical damages.

Ash made a mistake. Since when is there an exchange rate for stupidity?